1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns optical fiber cables and in particular a bundle of optical fibers for fabricating such cables in which the optical fibers are assembled in an ordered form.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For fabricating a cable it is desirable for the optical fibers of the bundle to be selectively identifiable at the ends of the cable after the bundle of fibers has been inserted into the jacket of the cable. It is also desirable to prevent excessively high compression stresses, due to the characteristics of he assembly, from being exerted on the optical fibers because such stresses increase attenuation in the optical fibers.
In one prior art solution the bundle of optical fibers is twisted to hold the optical fibers in place during insertion into the jacket. However, this technique induces compression stresses on the fibers, which is undesirable.
German patent document DE-35 26 823 describes an ordered structure optical fiber bundle in which optical fiber ribbons are stacked one on the other, the ribbons being joined together by their top and bottom faces to prevent relative displacement between the ribbons during insertion of the bundle into the jacket.
In German patent document DE-41 01 082 the ribbons are stacked by virtue of being inserted into slots of a prefabricated structure which holds the ribbons in place during insertion into the jacket.
The aim of the invention is to propose another assembly configuration for binding the ribbons without generating stresses on the optical fibers and which preserves the order of the fibers in the bundle to enable easy identification of the fibers when the bundle is inserted in the jacket.